Butterfly Conservation - saving butterflies, moths and our environment
Butterfly Conservation
saving butterflies, moths and our environment
   Suffolk Branch
 » Homepage
 » Contact us
 » Sightings
 » Committee
 » Events
 » Conservation Work
 » Recording
 » Suffolk Butterflies
 » Distribution Maps
 » Links
 » Black Hole Map
Links to the national Butterfly Conservation website
 » National website
 » BC Membership
 » WCBS
 

Sightings of Butterflies in Suffolk - 2024

Join Butterfly Conservation - click here to go to the National Butterfly Conservation website to join.

Send Us Your Sightings

The Branch is always grateful for butterfly records and a recording form can be downloaded from the Recording page. 
We are always interested in sightings of any butterflies in any location in Suffolk but we are particularly grateful for records away from the coast and information on the following species:
BAP species; Dingy Skipper, White Letter Hairstreak, Silver-studded Blue, White Admiral, Grayling, Small Heath, Wall Brown
Others; Green Hairstreak, Purple Hairstreak, Silver-washed Fritillary, Purple Emperor, Chalkhill Blue
(not Devil's Dyke)

Send Sightings by email to (please make sure you enter a subject) and they will appear below within a few days.
Clicking on the link should launch your usual email program.  If this does not seem to work just use the email address.

Please include the date, how many of each butterfly species seen, location with an ordnance survey grid reference if possible, and your name (if you want to).
If you would like to contribute to the annual survey please read the notes on the Recording page.

If you report a Brimstone this record will also be passsed to the Brimstone and Buckthorn project


Regular recorders are urged to use this sightings page to inform others of interesting sightings, but please do continue to send all your records to the county recorder, James Corton, at the end of the season.  This can be done using a simple Excel spreadsheet amd an example is on the Recording page (click here)

Date 
2024
Butterflies seen (and other relevant information).  First Sighting of Year in Bold or Bold for rarer species
For a summary of First Sightings see the Suffolk Butterflies Page - click here
Location Grid Reference Name
         
March SwT DS ES SS LS OT LW SW GvW CY B WB SpW SH R MB GK MW Gr SwF DgF MF GF HBF SPbF QoSF WA PE RA PL P ST C LT CmB SC PH GH WlH BH HB SsB BA CB ChB SB LtB - Total species seen 7       (📷 photo click here) 
         
16 Mar A female Holly Blue flew through my garden in Saxmundham this morning. Must be the earliest I have ever seen. Saxmundham   Bob Turner.
15 Mar One or possibly two cracking male Brimstones along the Mill Stream near Foxhall Stadium this morning. Ipswich   Jenny & Gary Plank
15 Mar A very fresh looking Brimstone in our garden this morning Flowton TM085470 Rob Clements
15 Mar Brimstone - first butterfly of the year in garden SW Ipswich   Richard Perryman
14 Mar A Comma flying in the sun today (14 March) at Flowton.  .  Very welcome! Flowton TM085470 Rob Clements
9 Mar Saturday's volunteer session of the Friends of Belstead Brook Park at Stoke Park Wood LNR - a trailer load of litter! Depressing, but it felt like spring with brimstones & commas to cheer us up!  (📷 photo click here Stoke Park Wood LNR   Greenways Project
9 Mar In the very welcome sunshine, we had a Brimstone in our Wickham Market garden. Wickham Market TM302 563 Rob and Kerry Reeve
9 Mar Lots of sunshine today and we were joined by a male Brimstone and a Red Admiral at home here in Sudbury Sudbury   Keith Winch
9 Mar Beyton rd, Thurston.   My first brimstone (m) Thurston   Trevor Goodfellow
9 Mar Male brimstone seen in Charsfield around noon today (Sat 9th). First butterfly of the year for me. Charsfield   Steve Aylward
9 Mar Two Brimstones flashing around East Bergholt this morning (Records uploaded to @iRecordWildlife) East Bergholt   x Mark Nowers
9 Mar 1 Brimstone this morning in Laxfield churchyard TM29637249.  1 Brimstone this afternoon in my garden (the Orchards, Laxfield) TM29307243 Laxfield   Mike Turton
9 Mar We saw a Comma at Dunwich on the field path parallel to the deadend lane leading to coast guards. Also a male brimstone in Homersfield just before noon today.   Dunwich & Homersfield   Sarah Day
9 Mar A single Comma at Mill Stream early this afternoon. (📷 photo click here Mill Stream   Phil Watkinson
9 Mar Comma x 2 (one tatty and one fresh)    Along footpath by River Lark near The Crankles, Bury St Edmunds at 11:56 Bury St Edmunds TL 859640 David Bird
8 Mar We had this fresh Peacock butterfly, (📷 photo click here), in Woodbridge Old Cemetery, basking in the sunshine despite a brisk easterly breeze.   Woodbridge   Rob and Kerry Reeve  Steve and Anne Green
8 Mar Two Small tortoiseshell butterflies flying around on the reserve.  Lovely Spring weather here today (8/3) RSPB Lakenheath Fen    
6 Mar Just seen or 3rd Butterfly species for this year a Small Tortoiseshell SWT Carlton Marshes   b Robert Quadling
6 Mar Comma seen today in my garden at 12.45. Ipswich TM1644 Stella Wolfe
4 Mar Green-veined White seen flying 12pm Northgate High School area of Ipswich.  Photo taken later 3pm  (📷 photo click hereA week earlier than the previous earliest sighting N Ipswich   David Clark
4 Mar Just seen our first Brimstone Butterfly a Male near the visitor centre at 10.38am SWT Carlton Marshes   b Robert Quadling
         
February SwT DS ES SS LS OT LW SW GvW CY B WB SpW SH R MB GK MW Gr SwF DgF MF GF HBF SPbF QoSF WA PE RA PL P ST C LT CmB SC PH GH WlH BH HB SsB BA CB ChB SB LtB - Total species seen 4      
         
24 Feb 5 deg C and still the sun lured a Peacock out to bask. Thurston   Trevor Goodfellow
15 Feb Spring arrived on the reserve with a bang  when we spotted a Peacock butterfly in Brandon Fen, then a female Brimstone around the Visitor Centre. RSPB Lakenheath Fen   x RSPB Lakenheath Fen
15 Feb Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Brimstone Lound Lakes   x SWT
15 Feb We had a male Brimstone butterfly in our garden this morning Wickham Market TM302 563 Rob and Kerry Reeve 
15 Feb Have just seen a male Brimstone emerge from a thick ivy bush, 11.45am Little Bealings, Nr Woodbridge   Peter Woolley
12 Feb Red Admiral flew through the garden mid-morning.   Waldringfield   Peter Maddison
11 Feb My first sighting of this year; a red admiral in my garden Nightingale Rd at 11,33 am today Ipswich   Peter Compton
10 Feb We had a Red Admiral visit us today. Sudbury   Keith Winch
6 Feb We had a Hummingbird Hawkmoth visit our Stowmarket garden Mahonia   (📷 photo click here)  Stowmarket   Margie & David Carter
5 Feb Today a Red admiral was flying along old railway at North Warren. North Warren   Bob Turner
3 Feb  Red Admiral free flying., feeding on Viburnam Trimley St Martin  TM275379 Sue Biddle
2 Feb  A Peacock butterfly became the first butterfly of the year in our garden today.  Wickham Market  TM302 563 Rob and Kerry Reeve
1 Feb  We have our first reported sighting this year of a Peacock Butterfly on the 1/2/24 by the octagon along Share Marsh path   SWT Carlton Marshes   Robert Quadling
1 Feb Early Peacock  (📷 photo click here Lake Lothing   Carl Buttle
         
January SwT DS ES SS LS OT LW SW GvW CY B WB SpW SH R MB GK MW Gr SwF DgF MF GF HBF SPbF QoSF WA PE RA PL P ST C LT CmB SC PH GH WlH BH HB SsB BA CB ChB SB LtB - Total species seen 4       (📷 photo click here) 
         
28 Jan Our walk today at Henstead. Highlights: Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly Henstead   Jane ferguson
19 Jan Was very surprised to see my first butterfly of the year this morning. It was a Red Admiral on the wing at approximately 10.30am in the car park of the Coach House Hotel Carlton Coalville NR33 8BL Craig Fulcher
16 Jan Very surprised to see a Peacock butterfly at North Warren, Aldeburgh this lunchtime flying about in the vegetation. North Warren   Sarah Chamberlain
16 Jan My first butterfly of the year this morning a single Brimstone in minus one degree temperature but bright sunshine - Sandlings Local Nature Reserve Rushmere St.Andrew   Bryan Wright
4 Jan Just seen my first Butterfly of 2024 a Red Admiral in the Suffolk Sands holiday park Felixstowe IP11 2TS Felixstowe   William Brame
3 Jan 1pm today, a Peacock landed on my window sill. I wonder if last nights storm interrupted it's hibernation ? Rushmere St Andrew   Phil Watkinson
         

Sightings from previous years  2012    2013    2014    2015    2016    2017    2018    2019    2020    2021    2022    2023

Photographs from 2024 Sightings  (all pictures are the copyright of their owners)

 
Peacock - photo © Carl Buttle


Hummingbird Hawkmoth - photo © David Carter


Green-veined White - 📷 © David Clark


Peacock - photo © Rob Reeve


Comma - photo © Phil Watkinson


Comma - photo © Greenways Project







     
Back to Top

   
Copyright Butterfly Conservation © 2023 Suffolk Branch
Privacy and Copyright Statement
Butterfly Conservation Company limited by guarantee, registered in England (2206468)
Registered Office: Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 5QP
Charity registered in England & Wales (254937) and in Scotland (SCO39268)